


Silence

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen, The White March, backstory reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-16 00:42:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14152938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: For @pillarspromptsweekly #27: Hard Calls. I’ve had this idea floating around for a while, just needed a kick in the pants to actually write it. Once I got the muses going, it came together really quick. Spoilers(ish) for The White March pt 2 if you want to avoid those. :)





	Silence

**Author's Note:**

> For @pillarspromptsweekly #27: Hard Calls. I’ve had this idea floating around for a while, just needed a kick in the pants to actually write it. Once I got the muses going, it came together really quick. Spoilers(ish) for The White March pt 2 if you want to avoid those. :)

 

It was too quiet.

Emiri fought the urge to fidget with something as they walked through the Low Tide caverns, Kaoto’s instructions ringing through her head. It was too quiet and she didn’t like it.

This was not the comfortable silence of an evening in or good night’s rest, either. It was the silence of a breath before giving bad news, a wave rolled back to crush a helpless ship beneath it; heavy, oppressive, agitating. It was bothering the others, too; she could tell by Aloth’s fingers tapping against his grimoire, the tune Kana kept trying to hum and losing, Maneha fiddling with her bracelets. Something needed to happen, and it needed to happen _soon_. She was too focused on the silence--and what they were down here to do, sitting like a weight in her chest.

“Everything alright?” Even quietly as he asked, Aloth’s  voice was loud in the heavy silence, and Emiri started, grip tightening on her weapons.

“I...” She sighed. “It’s not important.”

“Emiri, I don’t need to possess your talent for reading souls to know that’s a lie.”

“Fine. I don’t think I can do it, Aloth.” It felt good to confess.  “I lived on ships for twenty years, I’ve been through one sinking.” She stopped, fighting back waves of remembered panic.

He frowned slightly in confusion. “And?”

“I know what it feels like to drown,” Emiri said softly, feeling the slow rising of cold terror in the back of her mind. “I can’t do _that_. I wouldn’t wish drowning on my worst enemy, let alone people who have’t _done_ anything to me.” 

“So don’t,” Aloth suggested, picking at the pages of his grimoire. “You’re an expert at finding... alternative solutions. Surely there’s another way to get what we need.”

Emiri shook her head, watching the pale blue light play across the wall. “It didn’t sound like it. And stopping the Eyeless is important. Necessary, even. I just don’t know if I can condemn a couple dozen people to die like that when it’s one of my worst fears.”

“I understand,” Aloth nodded. “I suppose all we can do is hope an alternative presents itself.” He was quiet a moment before asking, “So... if you don’t mind, how did you escape drowning?”

She smiled grimly. “The first time, when I was about twelve, one of the pirates remembered just in time their greatest weapon was still locked up belowdecks and came back to get me. Second time was when I escaped. I just lit out for shore--it was more floundering than swimming--and prayed I’d make it. Almost didn’t.”

“I’m glad you did.”

“Thanks. So’m I,” Emiri murmured, and they let the silence fall once more.

>.<

The something Emiri had been hoping would happen came first in the form of an intricately wrought gate stretching across the hall. As obstacles went, that was nothing, solved with a quick pull on the wave-like lever curling out from the wall next to it. The gate creaked and groaned loudly on its way down, however, riling up the Low Tide members, who swarmed from their cells to surround Emiri and her companions.

“Uh oh,” Maneha muttered, succinctly conveying Emiri’s feelings on the matter as well. Given the large pit in the middle of the room, it was hardly ideal terrain for a fight.

Ideal terrain or not, there was still a fight. And while just shy of a dozen unarmed men and women against a party of adventurers did tip the odds _slightly_ in favor of Emiri’s group, it was hardly an easy fight. Mostly thanks to the monks. Many of the Low Tide simply flailed about indiscriminately, going after whoever was closest.  The monks, accustomed to unarmed combat, were much more calculated in their targets.

As the fight reached its peak, one of them struck out with some ability that drove force through the very air, making Emiri and Kana stumble back and actually knocking Hiravias and Aloth off their feet entirely. Which would have been bad enough on its own--prone in the middle of a fight was never a good scenario--but Aloth hit the edge of the pit when he landed and started to tumble over.

Emiri swore under her breath, dropped her weapons, and lunged. She hit the floor hard enough to knock the wind out of her, but she did feel her fingers close around Aloth’s wrist. Both of them grunted at the jolt of arrested momentum pulling against their shoulders.

Once he’d grasped her wrist as well, Emiri offered Aloth her other hand to help him climb out. Two of the Low Tide started toward them, having noticed their vulnerable position. Emiri gritted her teeth and simultaneously hauled Aloth the rest of the way out of the pit and lashed out psychically at the Low Tide. They dropped to their knees, clutching their heads and screaming in recalled agony. It made them easy targets for Pallegina. The _last_ targets, it turned out.

“Thank you,” Aloth said, he and Emiri both breathing hard as they sat by the edge of the pit.

“Just glad I was fast enough,” she shrugged, rubbing a banged knee.

“As am I,” he smiled, which turned into a wince as he rolled his shoulders.

“You alright?” Emiri frowned. He _had_ hit the ground pretty hard.

“Oh. Yes,” Aloth said, offering her a reassuring look. “It will probably leave a nasty bruise, but I’ve had much worse.”

Emiri raised a skeptical eyebrow and pressed one hand gently against his back, just below his shoulder blades. She didn’t feel anything like broken ribs, and he only flinched a little, so she shrugged and let it go. “Guess we should find our weapons.”

Aloth nodded as they pushed to their feet. “If mine didn’t go hurtling into oblivion.”

By some small miracle, his grimoire hadn’t. He’d dropped it when he first hit the ground and it had instead skidded off toward a far wall. It was even relatively undamaged. His sword, however, had indeed vanished into the depth of the pit.

This dilemma was quickly solved by Maneha pulling a stiletto out of her boot and offering it to him hilt-first. “Just as a loan. It has sentimental value and I’m gonna want it back.”

Aloth nodded as he took the weapon. “Understood.”

They pressed on, their footsteps once again the only sound in the eerie stillness. Emiri’s thought immediately returned to the task Kaoto had set them on, distaste worming through her the longer she dwelt on it. Which, fortunately, wasn’t long, as they ran into the former High Abbott, Farentis, not far past the gate. While addled, the man wasn’t nearly as far gone as the other Low Tide and managed to carry on a mostly coherent conversation. Emiri only cared about part of it, however. The part where he offered an alternative to killing the Low Tide. Aloth shot her a significant look, and Emiri felt one corner of her mouth twitch as she only half-listened to Mahena’s worry they should just do what Kaoto had asked.

 _Not a chance in Hel._ She set her jaw as she listened to Farentis’ explanation. Setting the Low Tide free wouldn’t be a danger because they were too weakened to hurt anyone--some of her group had bruises that disagreed--and they would be much less agitated once they’d had a chance to form new memories.

On the whole, she judged the risk to be worth it. Especially when the other option carried with it the weight of guilt. They were far enough up the mountains that by the time the Low Tide got anywhere near other people, they would likely have calmed down. Emiri didn’t voice her decision, just led the way further into the tangled hallways. She had no desire to delay so she could explain herself, not when it involved revisiting some of her worst memories. So they continued on in silence.

A few more of the agitated Low Tide attacked them along the way, but they were even more easily defeated than the first group.Now with an alternative to killing them, Emiri did her best to simply knock them out or stun them, but a couple of the more determined ones they were forced to kill. The final steps to  proved a bit of a challenge, not due to the tiles or the hand sign, but because performing them caused the pit stretching in front of her group to fill with water that quickly froze over. It took far more nerve than she showed for Emiri to walk across the icy surface, and still Kana laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder once they reached the other side.

“We’re nearly there,” he said, and she smiled in wordless gratitude. He was more right than they knew; only a few feet down the curved hallway they found a broad staircase that led up to the relic housing Ondra’s Witness.

Feeling her companions’ eyes on her, Emiri reached out, fingers curling around the cool metal. She studied the symbols; one to open the gates and release the Low Tide out to the mountain, one to flood the halls and kill them. Her mind buzzed with all the factors to this decision; worry Kaoto wouldn’t help them if she went against his wishes, keeping the Reliquary out of her reach and making it impossible to stop the Eyeless, the addled mental state of the Low Tide that some would believe made it better to just return them to the Wheel, put them out of their misery anyway, Farentis’ assurances they would improve once given a chance to form new memories and calm down.... And while her conscience wasn’t quiet about the moral implications of her choice, it wasn’t exactly giving her a definitive answer, either. This was all on her. Emiri took a deep breath, and clicked it over to release the Low Tide. _Gods, I hope that’s not a mistake..._

The quiet halls filled with the grinding clank of gates sliding open, the Low Tide shouting in cacophonous relief as they poured out of their prison.

And then silence returned. But this she didn’t mind so much, Emiri reflected. From the settled quiet in her soul, it had been the right decision. She pulled free Ondra’s Witness and looked at her companions. “We’re done here. Let’s go.”

They followed her out through silent, empty halls, and Emiri’s heart felt light for the first time since entering the caverns. Whatever consequences there might be for not following Kaoto’s instructions, she’d at least face them with a quiet conscience.


End file.
